COFFEE BEANS & BEINGS / CUPPA JOE WITH JODIE

The Brave One (2007) – A Summer Noir Worth Another Sip

There are revenge films—and then there’s The Brave One, a gritty, under-the-radar gem that simmers with rage and melancholy in equal parts. Directed by Neil Jordan and released in 2007, this urban vigilante tale may have flown below the radar, but Jodie Foster’s performance leaves a permanent scar. 

She shoulda, woulda, coulda had an Oscar nominee.  But no. Noir dramas got the short stick once again.

Foster plays Erica Bain, a New York radio host who survives a brutal assault that leaves her fiancé dead and her identity fractured.

 The city, once her muse, becomes a shadowland of threat and menace. Amazing what a great cinematographer [Phillipe Rouselot] can do with alleys and subways. What unfolds is not a sleek, stylized vendetta—it’s personal, feral, and disturbingly plausible. Foster’s portrayal isn’t just strong—it’s surgical. 

Cinematographer Phillipe Rouselot

Critics at the time, like The Guardian, called her performance “mesmerizing,” and The New York Times praised her ability to “hold the screen like a wounded lioness.” 

Yes, The Brave One is a vigilante flick, but it wears a noir trenchcoat. It opens rough but the violence is tempered the rest of the way--or as much as a gun play flick can ease off.

The palette is moody, the streets wet with moral ambiguity. Every subway ride and alley crawl feels like a plunge into the psyche. It's a film that doesn't glorify violence—it examines the fallout, the corrosion of self, the impossibility of justice in a system built on delay and denial.  

Terrence Howard offers a layered turn as the detective who suspects, then sympathizes.  And, of course, director Neil Jordan (far right with Jodie Foster on the set of The Brave One) knows his noir.  Aces.

But it’s Foster’s show. 

She carries the film with haunted dignity, whispering to the ghost of her former self. You don’t just watch The Brave One—you feel like you’re rolling in the grit right alongside her. If you missed it in '07, pour a strong cup of coffee or whatever, dim the lights, and let this one unfurl. It’s summer noir, unsung and unforgettable. 

***

Maybe it's time for a modern era noir hall of fame?  If so, The Brave One makes the list despite one of the world's most blah titles.  

Did I strike a nerve?   I can hear you say: "OK, smartie come up with a better movie title for this New York noir.  

Easy.  Too easy.

Call the damn thing "Recoil"  

The orginial title: The Brave One sounds like Mel Gibson on oatmeal.

--Review by F. Stop Fitzgerald, PillartoPost.org popcorn and coffee critic.